Teach Me How To Say Goodbye
by Disney Syndulla
Summary: Sans and Papyrus have no idea what's going on. One minute, they're in Snowdin. The next, they're in a place that's somewhat akin to the surface. Only, it's not. Can they get back home with only the help of this human? And will Grace, the human helping them, be able to find a new life with them?
1. Prologue

**Okay this idea has been in my head for nearly a month so I guess I'm writing it down now. Let's hope it doesn't blow up in my face~**

* * *

Grace Harper lay sprawled on her bedroom floor, Tryhardninja's DETERMINATION streaming through her earbuds as she sang along softly, finishing her homework. Two pages of "How World War II effected the United States", due in a week, but she was determined to get it done tonight. (She laughed at that terrible pun to herself.)

"Refuse to let it take you, like it took all the rest. The nightmare too familiar, replays 'til nothing's left. Why wrap your heart in peril, when we can hide away? Refuse to let it take you, refuse to let it take you. So won't you stay? So won't you stay?" Grace sang softly as she finished, carefully scanning her essay for any distinct spelling errors.

A light flipped on in the hallway, catching Grace's eye. She pulled out one earbud in time to hear Zoã's voice.

"Grace, it's almost eleven, go to bed!" The woman said from the kitchen, the sound of water running from the faucet fading away as she turned the knob of the sink.

"In a second, Zoã, I'm almost done." Grace answered.

"Go to bed!"

Sighing, Grace picked herself off the floor and plopped herself onto her bed, pulling her laptop up with her. Maybe if she was quiet enough, Zoã would think she had gone to sleep...

"I mean it, young lady. I know your tricks." And the hall light went off.

Grace glanced at the clock on her bookshelf and sighed. It was getting late, and she had school the next day. She was going to regret staying up so late the next morning, that much she was sure of. With a grimace, she flicked off her bedside lamp and pulled her covers up to her chest. And lazily, her eyelids closed shut, dreams filling her vision.

* * *

"AHHH, SANS! THAT WAS PROBABLY THE WORST PUN YOU HAVE EVER COME UP WITH!"

Sans smirked as he approached his screaming brother. "i only said-"

"DON'T!"

"that fake spaghetti we saw on display at the store-"

"SANS, I'M WARNING YOU!"

"was an-"

"I SWEAR SANS, IF YOU SAY THAT TERRIBLE PUN ONE MORE TIME..."

"im- _pasta_!"

Papyrus threw himself onto the couch and screamed into a pillow. "EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE!"

"lighten up bro,-" Sans stopped, a cold feeling coming over him.

"R̸e.͢.̵.͜..͡..͜.fuse.͡..͏...̕.͠.̛t̢a̶k͢e.̀.͞..͠.͟.̀t̡ook̕.̀.͢."̕ A small, quiet voice whispered into his ear. "͠Ni͡g̶h͠t̷..̶.́.mar͘e͏...̵..̧..̶ļèft..̕.́...́sţa̵y...̕won't...̡"̕ The skeleton turned, and instead of seeing Snowdin out the front window, he saw a bright, swirly mass of blue and white. He felt Papyrus walk over to him and grip the back of his hoodie. Sans peered into the mass closer, something catching his eye. Was that a _human_?!—

And his vision went black.

* * *

Grace was woken up by a loud thud. Blinking owlishly, she sat up on her bed, peering around the dark room. Was Zoã trying to find something hidden under her desk again...

Grace stiffened when she saw a silhouette rub it's head. The silhouette did not belong to Zoã, nor her father. Leaning over as silently and inconcpicusiously as she possibly could toward the nightstand beside her bed, Grace was now aware that there were two silhouettes.

Doing her best to keep her erratic heartbeat under control, Grace got a firm grip on the barbecue skewer in the the top drawer, suddenly glad she kept the extras from her science experiment in her top drawer, even if it was only because she had no where else to put them.

The skewer in her hand made a small _clink_ against something else in the drawer. Probably the—and Grace froze.

Several things happened at once.

The two intruders moved, as did Grace. She held out the barbecue skewer in front of her in a defensive position, ready to fight tooth and nail—

There was a bright blue flash, and Grace's eyes widened with shock upon seeing what was in front of her.

They were skeletons. Both of them. They looked...cartoonish. That was the only way to describe them; They didn't look like normal skeletons. One was short, wearing a blue hoodie. It was the one making the blue light (was the glow coming from floating _bones_!? Was his _eye_ glowing!?). The other one was about a head or two taller, wearing a red scarf and gloves. The smaller one stood in front of the taller one, and the taller one looked down at Grace warily.

"who are you?" The smaller one growled, the permanent grin on his face was unnerving.

Realization struck Grace, and she swallowed thickly. She shakily stood up from her bed, placed the skewer on her nightstand, and pointed a quivering hand at the taller skeleton. "P-Papyrus?..." She pointed at the smaller one. "Sans?..." The taller one's -Papyrus's- eyes seemed to widen ( _he didn't even have eyes! How did-_ ), and the smaller one -Sans- summoned more glowing bones and seemed to become even more on edge.

"how do you know us? where are we?"

"I-I...y-you're..." Grace pressed a hand against her forehead and leaned against the wall. She felt like she was going to throw up, like she was going to faint. What on _earth_ \- "W-what are you doing here?!" She managed to say.

" _what are we doing here_? where even are we? i want answers!" Yelled Sans. Grace pressed a finger to her lips and listened for any sign of Zoã. Hearing nothing, she turned her attention back to the pair.

"Quiet!" She hissed. "We can't risk waking up Zoã or my father...if my father is even home. Just-" she ran her hand along the lamp, searching for the switch. "-get rid of those bones."

The blue glow disappeared, and a warm yellow light from her lamp filled the room. Sans' blue-eye-glow-whatever-it-was faded, and two white dots appeared in his eye sockets. The magical equilivent of eyes, apparently.

"alright," he growled. " now where are we?"

Grace sighed. "I-I guess the most logical answer for you would be...the surface."

"WHAT?" Papyrus spoke, and Grace nearly covered her ears. Wow, he was loud. "THE SURFACE? WAS THE BARRIER BROKEN?"

"No, no!" Grace shook her head quickly. "You're...um...probably not going to believe me when I say this..."

"probably not."

"But...you're...uh..." She took a deep breath. "You're in another universe."

The pair stared at her, and Grace felt a trickle of sweat appear on her forehead. "I-uh don't expect you to believe me but—"

"yeah, we don't believe you."

"But I swear, I'm telling the truth!" Grace said quickly, rubbing her hands along her arms. "A-and I can prove it!" Oh gosh how was she going to prove it?

An idea coming to mind, she pointed at Sans. "You're the older brother, you've taken care of Papyrus for who knows how long, really. You like ketchup, you're a sentry for the king, and you would do anything to make your brother happy." Sans stared in shock, his grin nearly wiped from his face (Grace broke the game's coding, it seemed to her). She turned to Papyrus.

"You're Sans's younger brother, and are also a sentry for the king. You like puzzles, making spaghetti, and want to be in the royal guard someday. You also train under Undyne." Papyrus gave the girl a blank look, before turning to his brother.

"WOWIE, SANS. THIS HUMAN SEEMS TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT US!"

Sans stared. "who _are_ you?"

"Grace Harper." Grace bit her lip. "And while part of me is thinking I've gone crazy and started hallucinating, the other part is wondering how the heck you two got here."

"OH, THAT'S EASY!" Papyrus nodded enthusiastically. "WE SAW A LOT OF BLUE AND WHITE OUT THE WINDOW, NOW WE'RE HERE!"

Grace blew a fly-away strand of hair from her face. "That wasn't very helpful..."

Sans glanced around the room, taking in her curtain-drawn-window, the painting of a castle hung on the wall, a glass mobile hanging from the ceiling, the floor-length mirror...

"do you think the mirrior could've had anything to do with it?"

Grace shook her head. "Unlikely. I've had that mirror for as long as I can remember, and it's never done, well... _this_ before."

The three of them stood in silence, before Grace said, "Well, I guess we'll have to figure this mystery out tomorrow." She stole a glance at the clock and groaned. 3:00am. "It's way too late and I have to be up for school in four hours."

Mumbling under her breath, she pulled two spare blankets and pillows from her closet and laid them on the carpet next to her bed for the brothers too use as a makeshift bed. Then, leaving the pair to their own devices, she threw herself onto her own bed, pulling the comforter up to her chest and rubbing her face against the yellow pillowcase.

Papyrus was quick to fall asleep, and Grace soon after, while Sans merely lay awake and stared at the mobile. Watching the blue and green glass reflect off each other and make light shadows on the wall.

Something told him there was more than she was letting them know. Surely they had been sent there for a reason? And surely the girl knew more than she wanted Sans to know.

Before Sans allowed himself to fall into unconsciousness, he vowed he would find out what Grace knew.

One way or another.


	2. What comes next?

The sound of her alarm startled Grace right out of her sleep.

After recovering from her miniature heart attack, Grace smacked her hand on the off button. Gritting her teeth, she rubbed a hand over her face. She normally woke up before the thing went off, though she had been particularly tired from last night—

With a start, Grace remembered the two skeletons that had appeared in her room last night. Clenching her pillow, she squeezed her eyes shut and counted to three. _It was just a dream,_ she told herself.

"what was _that_?"

Grace bristled a little, almost disbelieving as she cracked an eye open enough to see Sans looking around her room, obviously startled as he looked at her with wide eye-sockets ( _!?_ ).

Nope. It had defiantly not been a dream. And now she was housing the skelebros like refugees.

"My alarm clock," Grace mumbled sleepily. "Argh, I don't want to get up." She pulled her blanket closer around her body. Why was it always so cold in the morning?

"SHE SOUNDS LIKE YOU, SANS." Came Papyrus's say in the matter. He seemed to be, somehow, unfazed by the alarm's beeping.

Chucking softly to herself, Grace rolled out of her bed, straightening her crumbled shirt and stifling a yawn. The other two were also getting to their feet, and she turned to study the pair for a moment. Her analytical gaze must have been a bit startling, because Sans suddenly snapped, "what?"

Grace shook her head. "I'm just trying to figure out what to do. You two won't exactly blend in here..." She was thrown from her train of thought by the sound of tapping on her door. Thinking quickly, Grace shoved the two skeletons into her closet and turned to see Zoã leaning against the doorframe.

"Morning," Zoã said. "Better get ready for school, Gracie. I already fed Max and I need to leave soon, so if you need a ride-"

"No, no," Grace interrupted. "I can catch the bus." She plastered what she hoped was a convincing smile on her face. Zoã gave her charge a quizzical look, before shrugging.

"Alright, if that's what you want." The Asian woman ran a hand through Grace's bed-hair. "I'll be back home around four tonight, kay? I need to run some errands for dinner, your father will be home tonight so I'm making a special dish."

Grace crossed her arms and frowned. "That's what you said yesterday," she mumbled. Zoã sighed and pulled the girl into a hug.

"I know. It's just..." She paused, looking for the right words. "Your father is just busy." She released the girl from her grasp and held her at arms length. "I promise he'll be home tonight." Zoã gave a small smile and left the room.

Grace didn't dare remove the skeletons from her closet until she heard the sound of a car pull out from the driveway. The girl then quickly opened the door, only to have Sans and Papyrus nearly topple onto her.

"i uh, know it's not my place to intervene," Sans said, pushing himself off the floor. "but who was that?"

Grace's face flushed pink and she pulled her arms close around her torso. "My nanny," she mumbled, "Well, a family friend who takes care of me." She then quickly shook her head. "But that's not important right now." She swept her long brown bangs away from her eyes. "I just need to get dressed, get breakfast, and figure out what to do."

Grace made way for the closet, before turning around and giving the brothers a stern look. "Don't break anything, don't leave the room." And with that, she closed the door of the closet.

She emerged a few minutes later, having exchanged her sweatpants and snowflake-patterned tank-top for jeans and a NASA t-shirt. Sans and Papyrus watched as Grace scurried around the room, muttering to herself as she grabbed papers and her laptop shoving them into a blue-white-and-grey zigzagged backpack. After yanking her hair into a sloppy bun, she rummaged under the bed before emerging with a pair of faded pink converse shoes.

"Okay," she stood up, then sighed, rembering one last thing. "Right...glasses. Where did I put them...?" Grace glanced at the desk before spying the glasses beside the lamp.

Sans grinned. "i guess you'll have to _look_ for them." Grace snorted out a laugh as she reached for the spectacles. Papyrus stamped his foot in frustration.

"OH MY GOSH, SANS. THAT DIDN'T HELP AT ALL!"

Grace smiled as she cleaned her newfound glasses, the thick black frame dusted with fingerprints. "Nah, it's okay, Sans. I _see_ what did there."

Papyrus groaned. "OKAY, WE GET IT! YOU LIKE PUNS TOO, FANTISTIC." Grace opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by a loud bark. She opened the door to find a brown and white dog sitting in the doorway. Grace beamed and reached to pet the dog.

"Good morning, Max," she cooed. Max barked again and placed his front paws on Grace's thighs, reaching to lick her scrunched-up face. He then noticed the two skeletons in the room, and excitedly bounded toward Papyrus. Wow, those bones smelled great!

Grace gasped and lunged for the dog.

"Max, no!"

With a confused bark, Max was suddenly enveloped with blue, and he floated a few inches off the floor. Grace looked up to see Sans' glowing eye and raised fist, a look of... well, Grace couldn't identify the emotion. She reached for the whimpering dog, and held onto his collar as Max fell to the ground.

"Sorry about that," she muttered. "I'll go put him outside." She quickly left the room, Max at her heels.

When she returned, she found that Sans and Papyrus had opened her curtains and looking out her window. Grace felt a pang of sadness as she realized this was their first time seeing the surface.

"WOWIE, SANS! WHAT'S THAT BRIGHT THINGY—"

"Don't stare at it!" Grace cried, a though coming to mind. Both brothers turned to look at her. "You'll damage your..." She stopped. Oh, wait. Skeletons don't have retinas. She laughed awkwardly. "Hehe...never mind."

Sans returned his gaze to the sky. "we call that, the sun."

There was a pause, then—

"WHY IS IT UP THERE? _HOW_ IS IT UP THERE?"

Grace and Sans made eye contact (eye _socket_ contact?) before Grace blurted out: "Magic!"

"WOWIE!" Papyrus jumped up and down. "I DIDN'T KNOW HUMANS HAVE MAGIC ON THE SURFACE!" He picked Grace up and spun her around. "WHAT AN AMAZING DISCOVERY!"

"Uh..yeah." Grace mumbled as she was set back on the ground, dizzying black dots swarmed her vision. She picked up her backpack. "C-come on," she waved the pair toward the open door. "We should probably go downstairs get some breakfast."

They all filed quietly quietly down the hall into the kitchen, Sans and Papyrus taking in the sights of the "surface" though the windows.

Grace made a beeline for the fridge, keeping track of the time as she rummaged around in the fridge. She quickly pulled out a gallon of milk and grabbed three cups from the dishwasher. After handing Sans and Papyrus a glass of milk each, she turned to the cabinet to find the Poptarts. When she had turned back to the pair, they were smiling at her, glasses empty. Grace stared. Where did the milk even _go_ —

Never mind, she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"Okay," she shook her head and handed them each a pastry. Sans gave it a glance, before holding it up to his teeth. The poptart seemed to just...disappear in bites. But he wasn't opening his mouth so—

Grace's mind was going to be broken by the time she got to school. She shoved her own poptart into her own mouth.

Papyrus, however, seemed uncertain of the strawberry-iced breakfast pastry, "WHAT IS THIS? IS IT LIKE SPAGHETTI?"

Grace brushed the crumbs that remained from her own pop tart off her hands. "Well, it's made of strawberry jam and icing, and-" she caught the skeleton's confused glance. "Yeah its like spaghetti you should try it." Papyrus seemed to like the answer, as he took a bite of the poptart.

Grace glanced at the clock and muttered an unintelligible word. Ushering the two brothers back into her room she explained, "Okay I have to go to school I should be back around 3:00. If you get hungry I'll leave the poptarts on the counter. Max is outside, just keep him out there he'll be fine. Zoã is going to be gone all day, so that's one less thing to worry about."

She counted off her fingers. "No going in the other rooms of the house, no destroying the house, no giving any signs to the outside that you're here," she gave Papyrus a look. "And no cooking. Zoã would have a seizure if she came home to a mess." Grace blew her bangs from her eyes. "That should cover everything-" A loud honk from the outside cut her off.

"Aaaand the bus is here." She picked up her bag and ran.

"See you after school!" And then Grace was gone.

* * *

 **Heeeeey guys...**

 **I'm sorry this came out so late I meant to have it up like a month ago but things happened. Long story short, two grandparents died, my cousins moved closer to me so I was helping them get moved, my aunt (who I am extremely close to) and her husband just moved to Florida because her husband is in the Air Force and got deployed there, theater takes up a lot of time, and school.**

 **On a totally unrelated note, may I suggest taking a look at my Instagram? I don't post selfies or anything (Okay I've only posted one BUT I ACTUALLY LOOKED GOOD IN IT AND I NEVER LOOK GOOD IN THEM CAN YOU BLAME ME!?) but I post a ton of art (it's all I have it for) and it's mostly Undertale related so that's a plus~**

 **By no means am I asking for you to follow me (I mean you can if you want but that purely your choice) I would just like for you guys to see what else I do in my free time when I'm not trying to get these chapter up (and I promise I post on their more often then I do on here)**

 **(it's elizasyndulla in case anyone is curious)**


	3. I got the same brains as my pops

"The attack on Pearl Harbor, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, the Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and Operation Z during planning, was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II.

"Japan intended the attack as a preventiveaction to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan planned in Southeast Asiaagainst overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next..."

Despite Grace's best attempts, she kept spacing out of her teacher's history lesson. She normally paid attention in class, but today Grace had other things in her mind. She was still trying to process the events from last night. How did they get there? Why were they there? What was she supposed to do? Tell them, " _hey guys, guess what! Your lives are a video game, and you aren't real_!" That would go over well.

"Ms. Harper?"

Grace snapped her attention back to the teacher, who was now standing over Grace's desk.

"Any thoughts you would like to share with the class?" The teacher raised an eyebrow. Someone snickered on the other side of the room, two girls started whispering to each other. Grace shook her head and slid lower into her seat.

"No, sir." She mumbled.

The teacher turned back to the chalkboard. "That's what I thought."

* * *

Grace slipped out of the stuffy classroom once the bell rang. Weaving between groups of people, she made it to her locker before she could be trampled by the large crowd of teenagers. After exchanging her previous textbook for a new one, Grace headed to her last class. _Just one more period, just one more period, just one more period._

* * *

Science class was going fine, until the skeletons appeared.

Grace had taken her normal seat in the back by the window. It provided her with a view of the schools front lawns, and the lazy neighborhood across the street. She could see and elderly couple sitting in their porch, a man walking his dog, and a woman with a small child tending to a garden (though the child seemed to be throwing dirt around more than pulling weeds, it seemed to Grace).

Her attention was pulled away from the outside world and to the class by the sound of students filing into the classroom; their loud and pointless chatter drifting across the stuffy room to meet Grace's silent ears. The teacher entered and the room fell silent.

"Alright, class." The teacher said. "Today I'm handing out group assignment sheets," The class gave a collective groan, and the teacher held her hands up. "I know, but it needs to be done. Get into groups of four." As the teacher passed around sheets of paper to the students already huddled into groups, Grace did a mental count. Eight...twelve...twenty-one kids, counting herself. So that meant-

"Alone again, Grace?"

The girl in question looked up to see the teacher standing over her desk, holding a single piece paper and looking a bit concerned. Grace just smiled and took the paper from her teacher.

"I work better alone," Was all she said, before turning to look at the paper. Grace heard the teacher's heels clacking against the tiled floor as she walked back to the other students, and Grace turned her attention back to the window.

She must've fallen inside herself again, because when Grace came too, she saw two skeletons smiling at her through the window.

* * *

 **Happy...2017...?**

 **I feel really really _really_ bad about making you guys wait _so long_ for a new chapter and it being _this_ short and _this_ crappy, but...well, long story short: I've been going through a lot. Nothing I don't think you guys will care about, since you're here to read my fanfiction, not listen to my emotional issues. **

**I am literally the worst person on earth. I know.**

 **Review, I guess. I don't blame you if you don't.**

 **(Trivia: Guess what song the chapter title is from)**


End file.
